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Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Beirut
The Sinai Peninsula has rejoined the Arab and Islamic Resistance as
this great awakening spreads inexorably across the region toppling
Western imposed security states and replacing them with governments of
greater popular legitimacy. Egypt and other countries in the region are
contributing to righting the historic wrong done to the Palestinian
people as millions around the World are employing an increasing variety
of resistance strategies in solidarity with this regions central cause
of liberating Palestine from the crumbling but ultra-violent Zionist
colonial project.

Historically, the 23,000 sq. mile triangular Sinai Peninsula has been
an area of Resistance against a series of occupiers and despots since
it was joined to Egypt during in Mamluk Sultanate (1260-1517) when the
Ottoman sultan, Selim the Grim, won the Battles of Marj Dabiq and
al-Raydaniyya, and added Egypt to the Ottoman Empire.

Following the establishment of the Muhammad Ali Dynasty‘s
rule over the rest of Egypt in 1805, the Ottoman Porte, faced with
increasing resistance from Sinai, transferred administration of the
restive Peninsula to the Egyptian government, by this time under the
control of the colonial power, the United Kingdom. The British occupied
Egypt since 1882 and imposed the border in an almost straight line from
Rafah on the Mediterranean to Taba on the Gulf of Aqaba which has
remained the eastern border of Egypt. At the beginning of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War,
Egyptian forces invaded Palestine from Sinai to support the Palestinian
Resistance in their struggle against the imposed State of Israel.

Last week’s Sinai operation by “terrorists in Bedouin clothing”
against the occupiers of Palestine resulted in the deaths of 16 Egyptian
guards protecting the Israeli border as well as several of the
Fedayeen, signals again that the Sinai Peninsula has returned to its
historic role in confronting colonialism on Egypt’s border. The
Egyptian people, if not yet fully their leaders are returning to their
historic struggle to liberate Palestine.
The regime of former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak would
purposefully undermine relationship between the Egyptian and Palestinian
people. However, over the past 18 months, much of the Sinai has become
more Resistance oriented, as police stations in the Sinai were
dismantled, the gas line with Israel repeated severed, and Bedouin
tribes and others began to stockpile weapons arriving from Libya and
from Israel’s black market and elsewhere. The area is becoming a major
Resistance base with fighters vowing to repel any attempt by the US and
Israel to retain control.

No proof positive has been proffered to support a number of claims
being made regarding those responsible for the Sinai attacks and other
recent attacks against Israeli installations that number more than 30
just since last year’s Tahrir revolution.

A spokesman for the Hamas government has claimed that the Sinai
attack was an Israeli “attempt to tamper with Egyptian security and
drive a wedge between the Egyptians and the residents of the Gaza
Strip.” Tarek Zumar, a spokesman for the group, claimed that Israel was
behind all recent terror attacks against the Egyptians “because it wants
to make changes along its border with Egypt.” The day after the attack,
and relying on its own intelligent sources, Hamas announced that:
”This crime can be attributed to the Mossad, which has been seeking to
abort the revolution since its inception and the proof of this is that
it gave instructions to its Zionist citizens in Sinai to depart
immediately a few days ago.”

An American critic of Israel’s influence over the U.S. Congress, who
is an Assistant Staff Director on a Congressional Committee, emailed
that “We are looking into what Israeli leaders knew about the Sinai attack and when they knew it, but no definite responsibility for this operation has been established.”
The Muslim Brotherhood has also blamed Mossad for the attack.

One of the reasons the Egyptian public is increasingly calling for
abolishing or at least re- negotiating the “Treaty of Shame” as the Camp
David agreement is commonly known, is that Egyptian security forces in
Sinai are not enough to protect the borders. Under Camp David’s “Peace
Agreement” it is Israel, and not the Egyptian government who determines
how many Egyptians security personnel can stand guard at Egypt’s
border.

On 8/4/12, Egypt’s new pro-Palestinian President, Mohammad Morsi,
responded to the attack by sacking the pro-Israeli intelligence chief
Murad Muwafi, as well as the governor of Northern Sinai Abdel Wahab
Mabrouk. The same day Mursi ordered his defense minister to relieve the
head of the country’s military police, as his spokesman said to “turn a
page” in the Palestinian struggle and also as a confidence building
move in the face of a predicted Zionist campaign to blame the Muslim
Brotherhood for the attack. There has been a relentless campaign by
Zionist leaders since Mubaraks ouster, to weaken the Egyptian public’s
determination to isolate Israel and cancel their governments relations
with the occupiers of Palestine.

Supporters of Morsi’s rival in the presidential election, Ahmed
Shafik, a former air force commander, have called for Egyptians to rise
up against the Brotherhood and President Morsi as a result of the Sinai
operation. Such attacks underscore the divide between new
pro-Palestinian government and the military, which continues to hold
enormous political power and has limited the president’s authority.

The Resistance operation comes only a week after Palestinian Prime
Minister Ismail Haniya made a rare visit to Egypt to meet with Egyptian
President Mohammad Morsi to discuss easing travel restrictions on Gaza
imposed by Israel’s siege, restrictions respected by Mubarak for years.
That meeting, coupled with Morsi meeting both Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal and Palestinian President Abbas last month, resulted in the opening the Rafah border for 12 hrs a day
and increasing the daily limit on passengers from Gaza to 1,500. By
opening the border Morsi was following through on a campaign promise he
made during the run up to Egypt’s hotly contested election. With the
advent of the Arab Spring a number of Egyptian pro Resistance
organizations demanded the complete opening of the Rafah crossing to all
traffic, including commercial. During his campaign Morsi stated that
“the time has come to open the Rafah crossing to traffic 24 hours a day
and all year round.”

Unfortunately, following the most recent operation the Rafah crossing
has been indefinitely closed just like it was under the deposed
Egyptian president which will cause great hardship to Gazans and
amounts to nothing less than Israeli style “collective punishment” as
claimed by Musa Abu Marzouk, a senior Hamas official.

As one Gazan young woman, Rana Baker, a member of the Gaza-based BDS organizing committeerecently observed,
“It is worth recalling here the official Egyptian stance on the murder
of two Egyptian security guards in an Israeli raid along the
Israeli-Egyptian border last year. Not one Egyptian helicopter took off
in search of the assailants and not one bullet was aimed at “suspects”
from the Israeli side. Not only did the SCAF bury the incident as if it
had never happened, but it went as far as to quell Egyptian protestors
at the Israeli embassy in Cairo almost a year ago today. Days later the
SCAF erected a high wall around the embassy to “protect” it against
“extremists.”

The Gaza Strip has now been closed off, as it was during the time of
deposed Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak. The siege is now expected to
intensify following the indefinite closure of the Rafah and Karm
Abu-Salem border crossings. The siege is now expected to intensify
following the indefinite closure of the Rafah and Karm Abu-Salem border
crossings.

Robert Satloff , Executive Director of the Washington Institute for
Near East Policy (WINEP), founded by AIPAC, presented the Zionist
lobby’s reaction to the Sinai operations and the expanding geography of
Resistance. He offered the following suggestions presented on their
website and in Lobby publications:
“The US must undertake firm communication to Egypt’s Morsi that if he
wants international support to bolster his flagging economy, he cannot
pander to the worst instincts of Egyptian public opinion. Indeed, any
serious effort to prevent terrorist infiltration in Sinai requires
coordination with Israel, and this will not proceed in an environment of
public vilification.”

“Second, U.S. policymakers should reaffirm to the Egyptian military
that Washington views securing Sinai as an essential aspect of
Egyptian-Israeli peace, and that continued provision of substantial
military aid, which has exceeded 35 billion over the past three decades,
is absolutely contingent on the investment of adequate personnel and
resources to do the security job. Failure to direct the right people and
resources to the peninsula will trigger an overall reassessment of the
U.S. military assistance package, with an eye to updating this 1980s-era
relationship for the current environment.”

Satloft’s views are reflective of the vast disconnect between reality
and expectations of Zionist officials and their shills, over what the
past 18 months has birthed in the Middle East with respect to Resistance
to the continuing colonization and ethnic cleansing of Palestine.

With the Sinai Peninsula returning to the era and culture of
Resistance the liberation of Palestine draws every nearer and more
certain, perhaps sooner than later.

Franklin Lamb is doing research in Lebanon and is reachable c/o fplamb@gmail.com.

After much speculation and misinformation about the impact of the
recently announced ‘Red Notice’ issued by Interpol for Captain Paul
Watson, founder and president of Sea Shepherd Conservation Society who
was arrested at Frankfurt airport on May 13th and held in Germany for 70
days until his departure on or around July 22nd, Sea Shepherd is
setting the record straight. Using information posted to its website as
provided in a letter from Captain Watson’s lead legal counsel in
Germany, Oliver Wallasch, Sea Shepherd addresses the speculation head-on
with the legal facts of this case. Click the thumbnail to read the entire unedited letter.

Questions & Answers

Q.: What is the impact of Captain Watson forfeiting bail to leave Germany?A.: Skipping bail in Germany is not a crime! This is totally
different from U.S. jurisdiction and from other countries in the world.
Article 2 of the German constitution states, that Germany grants
personal freedom. Therefore it is not even a crime in Germany to escape
from prison. The decision of the client to leave the country leads only
to the consequence that the local (not international!) arrest warrant of
the Higher Regional Court was set into force, and that bail is seized
(forfeited) on decision by the court. Because of the fact that the
client was arrested in an extradition procedure, Germany is not actively
searching for Mr. Watson locally or internationally.

Q.: What is the extradition procedure in Germany as it pertains to this case?A.: In the case of Mr. Watson, we knew that besides the request
of Costa Rica, there was also a ‘blue’ note issued by Interpol on
charges from Japan against the client. This ‘blue’ note on the warrant
from Japan has been active since 2010 and has not converted into a ‘red’
notice with Interpol during the whole extradition procedure with Costa
Rica. But we learned that Japan was highly interested concerning the
procedure with Costa Rica because they sent requests through Interpol
Tokyo to the Higher Regional Court to gather more information on the
procedure itself. This was absolutely unusual. The German
authorities are allowed to extradite even without a special treaty with
the requesting country. Therefore it was very likely that Japan would
ask for extradition itself on a bilateral basis; after Mr. Watson left
the country, we learned that such an extradition request was forwarded
by the Japanese Embassy through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the
General Public Prosecution Office in Frankfurt. The scenario would have
been that Mr. Watson would have been extradited to Costa Rica, and then
extradited after the procedure to Japan.These facts show, that there was a link between the extradition
request from Costa Rica and the upcoming extradition request from Japan.
Having in mind that the president of Costa Rica visited Japan at the
end of 2011, having in mind that Japan granted an enormous amount of
money for “environmental protection” in Costa Rica, it is obvious that
these two countries have a very close relationship.

Q.: Is the Interpol ‘Red’ Notice a warrant and what is its impact?

A.: Interpol Notices are international alerts allowing police in
member countries to share information. Interpol is not actively issuing
arrest warrants, Interpol is not actively searching for the defendant,
and Interpol is not involved in the extradition procedure. Interpol
just exchanges information between the police in the member countries.
The information that Interpol has issued a ‘red’ notice against Mr.
Watson on the charges of Costa Rica only means that the police in the
member countries shall be aware that Mr. Watson is wanted by Costa
Rica. It is up to the police and the judicial authorities within the
Interpol member countries whether or not they want to act on this local
arrest warrant from Costa Rica.

Q.: What is the impact of the ‘Red Notice’ on Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (S.S.C.S.)?

A.: Because of the fact that these are individual cases and
charges against Mr. Watson (in Costa Rica and in Japan) which are as
stated probably politically motivated, there is no impact on the work of
S.S.C.S. as an NGO itself; it is a general principle that criminal
charges are against individuals, not against legal bodies.

Q.: Will Captain Watson be able to travel for the upcoming Antarctic and other campaigns?

A.: “I am convinced that Captain Paul Watson is able to continue
his work, even with these bogus charges against him,” Wallasch said.

Statement by Sea Shepherd's Administrative Director

In speaking about Japan’s transparent attempts to thwart Sea Shepherd’s
campaigns, Susan Hartland, Administrative Director of Sea Shepherd, had
this to say: “The warrant and ‘blue’ notice generated is just another
feeble attempt by Japan to try and keep us from our mission to protect,
conserve and defend our oceans,” she said. “We operate within the legal
confines of the United Nations World Charter for Nature. We are an
enforcement entity acting legally against their relentless and archaic
illegal whaling operations in a designated sanctuary and, as such, we
will continue our direct action to protect the oceans and the wildlife
in and around it. Our supporters expect no less and that is what we
will continue to deliver. Our supporters stand by us and we stand by
Captain Watson, all the other captains of our ships, and all of our
courageous crew,” she said.

Hartland added: “Of course, we know that Japan would love nothing more
than to have their own ‘red’ notice issued on Captain Watson. They
tried for ‘red’ but Interpol recognized their attempts as politically
motivated, so they were forced to settle for a ‘blue’ notice instead,”
she said. “Colluding with Germany and Costa Rica, Japan tried to
extradite him, they have brought suit against us in the US, they have
harassed and arrested Sea Shepherd crew members, and charged them with
benign or bogus offenses when they’ve had the chance,” she said.

“Nothing Japan does will stop us from returning to Antarctica this
season with four vessels and four crews of committed and passionate
volunteers to shut down the Japanese whaling fleet,” she added.

In 2010, when the initial ‘blue notice’ for Captain Watson was issued
by Interpol, Captain Watson knew it was as a result of Japan wielding
their political and financial might once again, just like they continue
to buy off member nations of the IWC. At the time, Captain Watson had
this to say: "Give me my name on a blue list, the red list, the black
list, or the death list, for it is preferable to the I-don’t-give-a-crap
list.”Background:
The specific incident in question took place in Guatemalan waters, when
Sea Shepherd encountered an illegal shark-finning operation run by the
Costa Rican vessel, the Varadero I. On order of Guatemalan authorities, Sea Shepherd instructed the crew of the Varadero I to cease their shark-finning activities and head back to a Guatemalan port to be prosecuted. While escorting the Varadero I back
to port, the tables were turned and a Guatemalan gunboat was dispatched
to intercept the Sea Shepherd crew. To avoid the Guatemalan gunboat,
Sea Shepherd then set sail for Costa Rica, where the crew uncovered even
more illegal shark-finning activities in the form of dried shark fins
by the thousands on the roofs of industrial buildings.

Two Toyota Land Cruisers filled with about 15 well-built
gunmen in ski masks and all-black outfits appear seemingly out of nowhere.
Behind them is vast, open desert. They approach a group of soldiers huddled
around a simple meal as they prepare to break their Ramadan fast. The gunmen
open fire, leaving the soldiers with no chance of retrieving their weapons.

This is not an opening scene of a Hollywood action movie.
The massacre actually took place at an Egyptian military post in northern Sinai
on August 5. The description above was conveyed by a witness, Eissa Mohamed
Salama, in a statement made to The Associated Press (AP; Aug 8).

The gunmen
were well trained. Their overt confidence can only be explained by the fact
that "one militant got out a camera and filmed the bodies of the
soldiers".
One is immediately baffled by this. Why would the masked militants
wish to document the killings if they were about to embark on what can be
considered a suicide mission in Israel? "The gunmen then approached the
Israeli border," with two vehicles, one reportedly a stolen Egyptian
armored personnel carrier. The British Broadcasting Corp, citing Israeli
officials, reported that one of the vehicles "exploded on the
frontier", while the other broke through the Israeli border,
"travelled about 2 kilometers into Israel before being disabled by the
Israeli air force" (BBC News Online, Aug 7).

According to the BBC report,
citing Israeli sources, there were about 35 gunmen in total, all clad in
traditional Bedouin attire.
Their mission into Israel was suicidal, since, unlike in
Sinai, they had nowhere to escape. But who would embark on such a logistically
complex mission, document it on camera, and then fail to take responsibility
for it?

The brazen attack seemed to have little military wisdom, but it did
possess a sinister political logic.
Only 48 hours before the attack, the media were awash with
reports about the return of electricity in the Gaza Strip. The impoverished
Strip's generators have not run at full capacity for about six years, since
Hamas was elected. The Israeli siege and subsequent wars killed and wounded
thousands, but they failed to bend Gaza's political will. For Gazans, the
keyword to their survival in the face of Israel's blockade was
"Egypt".

The Egyptian revolution on January 25, 2011, carried a
multitude of meanings for all sectors of Egyptian society, and the Middle East
at large. For Palestinians in Gaza, it heralded the possibility of a lifeline.
The nearly 1,000 tunnels dug to assist in Gaza's survival would amount to
nothing compared with a decisive Egyptian decision to end the siege by opening
the Rafah border.
In fact, a decision was taking place in stages. Hamas, which
governs Gaza, was a branch of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood. The latter is now the
leading political force in the country and, despite the military's obduracy, it
has managed to claim the country's presidency as well.

In late July, a high-level Hamas delegation met in Cairo.
All the stress and trepidation of the last 16 months seemed to have come to an
end, as Hamas chief Khaled Mashaal, his deputy Musa Abu Marzouq and other
members of the group's politburo met with President Mohammed Morsi. Egypt's
official news agency reported Morsi's declarations of full support "for
the Palestinian nation's struggle to achieve its legitimate rights".
According to Reuters, Morsi's top priority was achieving unity "between
Hamas and Fatah, supplying Gaza with fuel and electricity and easing the
restrictions on the border crossing between Gaza and Egypt".

Juxtapose that scene - where a historical milestone has
finally been reached - with an Agence France-Presse photo of Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his defense minister, Ehud Barak, standing
triumphantly next to a burned Egyptian vehicle that was reportedly stolen by
the Sinai gunmen. The message here is that only Israel is serious about
fighting terror. Israeli newspaper Haaretz' accompanying article started with
this revelation: "Israel shared some of the intelligence it received with
the Egyptian army prior to the incident, but there is no evidence Egypt acted
on the information."

This was meant to humiliate Egypt's military further.

Naturally, Israel blamed Gaza, even though there is no
material evidence to back such accusations. Some in Egypt's media jumped on the
opportunity to blame Gaza for Egypt's security problems in Sinai as well. The
loudest among them were completely silent when, on August 18, 2011, Israel
killed six Egyptian soldiers in Sinai.
Then, Israel carried out a series of strikes against Gaza,
killing and wounding many, while claiming that Gaza was a source of attacks
against Israeli civilians. Later the Israeli media dismissed the connection as
flawed. No apologies for the Gaza deaths, of course, and AP, Reuters and others
are still blaming Palestinians for the attack near Eilat last year.

Then,
Palestinian factions opted not to escalate to spare Egypt an unwanted conflict
with Israel during a most sensitive transition.
None of that seems relevant now. Egypt is busy destroying
the tunnels, continuing efforts that were funded by the US a few years ago. It
also closed the Gaza-Egypt crossing, and is being "permitted" by
Israel to use attack helicopters in Sinai to hunt for elusive terrorists.
Within days, Gaza's misfortunes were multiplied and once more Palestinians are
pleading their case.
Israeli officials and analysts are, of course, beside
themselves with anticipation. The opportunity is simply too great not to be
utilized fully.

Commenting in Egypt-based OnIslam, Abdelrahman Rashdan wrote
that according to the Israeli intelligence scenario, "Iranians,
Palestinians, Egyptians, and al-Qaeda operatives all moved from Lebanon to
attack Egypt [and] Israel and defend Syria."
In Western mainstream media, few asked who benefits from all
of this - from once more isolating Gaza, shutting down the tunnels, severing
Egyptian-Palestinian ties, embroiling the Egyptian military in a security
nightmare in Sinai, and much more.

The Muslim Brotherhood website had an answer. It suggested
that the incident "can be attributed to the Mossad". True, some
Western media reported the statement, but not with any degree of seriousness or
due analysis. The BBC even offered its own context: "Conspiracy theories
are popular across the Arab world," ending the discussion with an Israeli
dismissal of the accusation as "nonsense". Case closed. But it
shouldn't be.
Before embarking on a wild goose chase in Sinai, urgent
questions must be asked and answered. Haphazard action will only make things
worse for Egypt, Palestine and Sinai's long-neglected Bedouin population.

- Ramzy Baroud (www.ramzybaroud.net) is an
internationally-syndicated columnist and the editor of PalestineChronicle.com.
His latest book is My Father Was a Freedom Fighter: Gaza's Untold Story (Pluto
Press, London.)

Monday, August 13, 2012

You are right, the Oil and Gas Commission is under strict lock down. All files are being kept in Fort St John.
However, as each of us explore the tidbits of info, a picture of is emerging. Verifying facts will take time and many FOI requests.
My understanding is comes from some inside sources. There are 8 pipeline at the Morice River area planned, 2 for Enbridge and 2 for PTP and Apache, EnCana and EOG. Security and forest fires are a concern and thus the planned R/W could be up to 3 kilometers wide.
This R/W is dubbed the "Energy Cooridor". There is a contract between PTP and Enbridge. In other words, Enbridge is also a part owner in PTP limited partnership. However, they were left out of the Google search announcement below for obvious reasons. Many first nations are beginning to check out the wording of an energy corridor approval and realize that Enbridge could piggy back their pipeline through this Energy Corridor.
I can't reveal all I know at this time, however, both PTP and Enbridge have run into problems getting there Free, prior informed consent from the Wet'suwet'en territory. The Chief and Council (imposed by the Indian Act) who's jurisdiction does not extend past the reserve boundaries, were rumour for the gas project, in order that they would receive a sizeable chunk of the 514 million dollars. They fiqured that the money would go far to battle Enbridge pipeline.
I can say that the R/W at Morice River has not been granted yet. There is an Investigated pipeline licence permit issued to PTP from the Crown, but these permits do not give you any rights like logging the R/W. It only give you the right of investigation. And Investigated Permits do not need the Free, Prior, Informed Consent from First Nations.
Canfor was stopped at the recent blockade at Morice River last Tuesday and were turned back. The Blockade or Action Camp at Morice River had over 200 hard core environmentalists.
Later, Rod
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